A Gardena-based maid services company has been ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in unpaid and compensatory wages to 385 former employees.

A federal court judge determined that Southern California Maid Services and Carpet Cleaning did not pay its employees minimum wage or overtime from 2003 to 2006, according to an Aug. 20 order filed in the U.S District Court’s Central District.

Court records show that Sergio Maldonado and Lorenza Rubio of Rolling Hills own and operate the business.

The married couple live in a four-bedroom house in the gated community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. They bought the 2,700-square-foot home in 2004 for $1.3 million, according to property records.

Maldonado and Rubio could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The federal Department of Labor charged the couple in 2006 with violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by underpaying their workers and failing to maintain accurate time and payroll records.

The court ordered them to pay about $3.5 million in wages, and about another $1million in fines for not paying proper wages on time.

Maldonado and Rubio claimed they were exempt from federal wage requirements of a minimum $5.15 hourly rate and time-and-a-half overtime compensation because the workers were independent contractors rather than employees.

However, they did not dispute the Department of Labor’s argument in court that they hired employees and acted as regular employers. As employers, they hired and fired employees, set work assignments and schedules, and paid workers, court documents state.

In an interview with the Daily Breeze in 2006, Rubio said California Maid Services and Carpet Cleaning contracted about 60 maids at any given time. They were paid 60 percent of the total amount charged for their services, Rubio told the Breeze.

“If we show (that we aren’t breaking the law), I don’t know why (the department) made this decision,” she said.

In court, Rubio and Maldonado did not provide legal defense for the allegations against them, according to court records.

“Defendants have provided no defense and have shown neither good faith nor a reasonable belief that their conduct conformed with the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act),” documents state.

Maldonado and Rubio did not keep records of employees’ hours and payments, so former employees will be reimbursed for underpaid wages based on their own accounts of their work hours, which were generally 10<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>2 hours a day, six days a week, court records show.

The company also required workers to bring helpers to each job site, but did not compensate those helpers. Part of the court’s financial award to former employees will go to those helpers, records show.

Don Wiley, district director of the U.S. Department of Labor Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division in East Los Angeles, said there are many other local companies that exploit workers. His office investigated this case primarily through interviews with workers.

“The person treated as an independent contractor had no say, couldn’t talk to individual clients, and couldn’t be paid directly,” Wiley said. “This is a problem in many low-wage industries. We have seen it in janitors, security guards, the garment industry.”

The Department of Labor was tipped off to this company’s illegal practices by a worker, who called the Employment Education and Outreach hotline, which educates Spanish-speaking workers on their rights. The worker asked for help in recovering unpaid wages.

Antonio Bernabe, a day-laborer organizer for The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said their goal is to stop worker exploitation.

“Employers are taking advantage of workers, especially immigrants,” Bernabe said. “They have no rights and are treated as criminals, but everybody’s hiring them.

“They have to work in any work condition, any hours. ? For the immigrant community, those kind of conditions at the job are normal. They think, `I’m a criminal, an immigrant. I have to accept this because they are doing a favor hiring us.”‘

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